That was the plan outlined by the head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Xu Shaoshi, at a press conference in Beijing yesterday. With this influential official saying that China will launch pilot programs for “mixed ownership” in oil and gas industries currently run by state-owned enterprises.

The NDRC chief didn’t specify what exact oil and gas opportunities might come open for outside investment. But the mere suggestion of such a strategy is intriguing — and could mean openings coming in the Chinese E&P sector, pipelines, services, and other ancillaries. Related: Ultra-Bearish Headlines As A Contrarian Signal For Oil

The news of the mixed ownership program was particularly interesting in light of another announcement from China last week. Where one of the country’s biggest oil and gas players said it is offering up a slate of offshore drilling opportunities for foreign partners.

That was China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC). Which has reportedly offered 18 offshore blocks in Chinese waters for tender.

According to Reuters, the licenses on offer include acreage in the Bohai Bay, South Yellow Sea, Pearl River Mouth, Yinggehai, and Qiong Dongnan basins. With some of the blocks covering deepwater plays — where CNOOC will reportedly offer preferential terms to attract skilled partners. Related: Oil Posts Gains In Less Volatile Markets

Bidders for the blocks will be able to attend an upcoming data room in Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Zhangjiang. And then purchase further information on the tendered blocks — ahead of an October 31 deadline for bids.

All of which is extremely interesting in its timing — seeming to support the statements from the NDRC that China is serious about bringing the private sector into former state-only ventures in oil and gas. Watch for announcements on further energy investment opportunities across China.

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A communist led government that arrests it's own 'citizens' when they become too successful and sends them off for 'investigation'?
Even their own language betrays something a lot darker to anyone who has read an elementary history of the party's creation and its' ultimately self serving destructive ways.
I wouldn't put one cent into such a country for fear of the executives of that 'company' being sent off to a 're-education' camp and possibly being replaced with a doppelgänger or much more simply coming back 'taught' to follow the party's' orders to the detriment of any foreign investor or investment group.
I've never worried about foreign investment in my own country, even by our communist friends as I know that in the end the government or people can simply reappropriate the asset/s if necessary for the good of the nation and even more so could imagine that happening at the whim of what is basically a dictatorship.
Just look at what happens each time a new clique comes into power in such countries- the former leaders and their entourage or circle of friends/family/henchmen are basically eliminated, most of the time financially and many times physically.
When a nation intentionally robs it's trading 'partners' by constantly aquiring their technology through outright theft, why would anyone think that they won't just take any monies or technology invested there?
It truly is laughable.
This is in now way meant to diminish the article written above.